Justin Moore to play Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium

Justin Moore has established himself as a country music hit maker but he no longer calls Nashville, Tenn., home.

“It was never my goal to live in Nashville,” Moore said. “Nashville was great to me and I knew that I had to be there for a while (and) I was there for almost 10 years. But when my wife and I had our first daughter who’s soon to be 8, I knew that I wanted to raise (my children) around my parents and their grandparents.”

Moore, who will perform Saturday at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium along with special guest Dylan Scott, now has four children and resides in the same small Arkansas town in which he was raised.

There, he’s just Justin. Never mind that he’s a country music superstar whose smash hits include “Small Town USA,” “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away,” “’Til My Last Day,” “Lettin’ the Night Roll,” “You Look Like I Need a Drink” and “Somebody Else Will.”

“They could care less what I do,” Moore, 33, said with a laugh. “They’re like, ‘oh, that’s that idiot that used to bebop around here on a four-wheeler, acting like a moron.’”

Moore might have had fun as a youth, but he also learned to take life seriously.

“My grandpa was a huge influence in my life,” Moore said. “I had so much respect and admiration for him. He obviously taught me life lessons that are huge, and he also taught me how to hunt and fish. I just really loved the person he was and I miss him every day.”

Moore said he named his first son, who was born just a few months ago, after his grandfather, who died a little more than eight years ago.

With his music, Moore aims to stay true to his roots.

“The thing people say to me in meet-and-greets or when they meet me, more than anything, is ‘man, why do you sing so normal?’” he said. “I have a cool job, but I’ve always kind of kept that blue-collar mentality.”

Although his own music has a more contemporary vibe and often injects elements of Southern rock, Moore counts honky-tonk neo-traditionalist Dwight Yoakam as his all-time favorite artist.

“People kind of seem to be surprised by that because our music doesn’t really sound similar,” Moore said, “but he was always like Elvis to me — just a great singer-songwriter, great guitar player (who) kind of could do it all.

“I’ve never seen anybody on stage better than him. He just makes you want to watch him.”

Moore’s latest album, “Kinda Don’t Care,” was released by Valory Music Group in 2016 and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country chart.

“We did some different things in the studio, and probably recorded some more progressive-sounding songs than I’ve ever recorded in my career,” Moore said. “I was somewhat nervous about doing that in hopes that I wasn’t going to disappoint the fans that were looking for maybe something else.

“And so my producer just came up to me one day and said, ‘Dude, you need to chill out. If you like this stuff and are passionate about it, then the fans will too.’”

Moore, who won an Academy of Country Music Award for New Artist of the Year in 2014, has had some pretty interesting experiences during his career, perhaps none more so than his contribution to a skit on the late night comedy show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Not only did Moore get some laughs from his performance of “The Ballad of Claus Jorstad (Devil Stool),” but the song, which spoofed the real-life misfortune a Norwegian man had with an Ikea stool in the shower, was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics category last year.

“The whole thing was just hysterical, man, but it was cool to be a part of,” Moore said.

In another instance, Moore said he got to hang out with fellow Arkansas native and Academy Award-winning actor and filmmaker Billy Bob Thornton.

“I was out in L.A., and my bus driver at the time had driven Billy Bob, because, you know, he won’t fly or doesn’t like to fly, so he buses a lot of places,” Moore said. “”So, we went over and hung out with him one evening.

“Ironically, he’s not only from Arkansas but he’s from the town next to the town that I live in and grew up in. They’re literally 12 miles from each other. I’m from Poyen, and he’s from a town called Malvern.”

As for Saturday’s concert in Spartanburg, Moore said he and his band will perform a mix of new material and longtime fan favorites.

“We definitely try to bring the energy that we did when we first started in the business,” he said. “It’s been clear to me that if we’re having fun on stage — and that’s obvious — that the fans typically do the same.”

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